The rising opposition to the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, a 67-mile, 500-kV transmission line, and general dissatisfaction with PJM and utility grid planning and interconnection policies, are driving new bills in the General Assembly.

The data center dilemma centers first on a familiar mismatch of timescales. Utilities and their regulators tend to plan based on the small, incremental demand growth. But development and the power demand it generates move at ever-increasing digital speed.

The California Energy Commission has updated its energy demand forecast for data centers after receiving revised figures from Pacific Gas and Electric about data center growth.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission spent a full day looking at how growing demand from data centers is impacting the commonwealth's electric grid and rates.

To meet the power demand posed by data centers in the Northwest, stakeholders must collaborate to efficiently invest capital and explore controversial solutions like establishing a regional transmission organization in the West, panelists said in a webinar.

The electric power industry must step up to meet growing power demand and continue to build a system the country needs, said Javier Fernandez, CEO of the Omaha Public Power District. "This is one place where we cannot afford to fail. We cannot afford to delay infrastructure."

FERC received comments on its recent technical conference on co-located load in which parties offered suggestions for how the commission should move forward in dealing with the emerging issue.